So this weekend i was at a raft up and chatting with since new people about ask the boats there. The guy next to me was telling me boats all have limits to how fast it will go no matter how much power you throw at it. Whats the faster anyonw has gotten a bandit 2 up to? Thanks for the replies in advance.
Dan

The best I've gotten out of my boat so far is 62 this past weekend. Ive got a gen 6 short block with forged .250 dome pistons in the machine shop getting built right now and just wondering if id be wasting time and shouls find a better hull.

I had a 91 with the 15 degree bottom that originally had a 390 ho 502 magnum, it would run 72 ish, , I later had beadwork done cam and 800 cam carb, copied the HP 465 and it ran upper 70’s

if you’re only getting 62 mph out of it, you’re only pushing low 300 hp

Its still the factory 330hp 454. Ive replaced the exhaust with imco thumper since it was due and the intake and upgraded the carb to a holley 750 instead of edelbrock. If i could get it upper 70s id be happy. My 62 is at 4600 rpm. Uaing the prop slip calculator if i can spin it to 6k ill be at 80 if slip doesnt change for the worse. If i remember correctly they changed the degree of the hull?

They changed to a 20* bottom in 92 mainly because they rode like sh!t
in anything slightly rough, I doubt there’s much difference in speed between them tho

500 hp should get you 80, I would upgrade to external hydraulic steering also

Can you expand on the steering and upgrades? And why? First boat so still learning boats but love it.

Have you weighed it to see what the scales say?

My 208 Baja Islander, with a 17 degree deadrise and a Yamaha Hydra Drive 454, weighing around 3400 pounds 'lake ready', would twist a labbed 21 Mirage + to ~5400 rpm @ 66 - 67 mph...on a good cool day with a light fuel load. It would only twist a 23" Laser II to 4900 or so. From what I could tell via experience, the Yamaha big block didn't have a rev limiter...or at least I never found it, lol. HOT BOAT tested the same boat with a Mercruiser 454 Mag and got 70 mph on radar. But make no mistake...the difference between say...58 and 65 on that boat was...significant. On the knife edge at the high speeds, somewhat intimidating, for sure. Your hull is...similar, I believe, to that one...not exact for sure but maybe close enough for comparison. The hydraulic steering is much safer and robust than the stock cable rack & pinion with power assist.

Full hydraulic steering takes all of the slop out of the steering system
and it takes stress off of the gimbal ring/adds support to the drive

Right now only issue i have is tge steering is really tight and tough. So I want to look into fixing that